A-Fusion Hunting We Will Go
by AgentofMischief
Summary: I drew this drawing of Mandy, the FusionFall version, that is, carrying Grim's scythe and became inspired to write a fan fic in which Mandy decides to go after her Fusion copy with Grim's scythe, to insure it stays down for good. Nobody wrecks Endsville and gets away with it, except Mandy! (Unfinished, but I have no intention of writing more.)
1. Chapter 1

Grim was enjoying a solitary evening in his DexLabs issued apartment, watching a telenovella, El Amor De La Pasion El Amor, that that Rex Salazar kid had recommended. It was a bit overly dramatic for the Grim Reaper's taste and he suspected that Rex only tuned in because he found the two lead actresses attractive. Grim persevered only because it meant that he could have "me time" away from all the snot nosed brats swarming the building's lobby. Especially after a few KND operatives had confused his skeletal frame for a coat rack, realizing their mistake only when he'd brandished his freshly sharpened scythe at them.  
He was about to doze off during the soap opera's season eight finale, when a series of piercing, impatient knocks sounded at his door.  
"What now? Can't I ever have any piece and quiet around dis joint?" Grim exclaimed.  
"Grim, open up or I'll make Tennyson do it for you." said an irritatingly familiar voice.  
Grim groaned, pulling on his robe. That voice never failed to make his old bones rattle. Years of forced servitude will do that to a person.  
He reluctantly opened the door and faced his old friend straight on.  
When you first saw Mandy, a little preteen girl with short blond hair and wearing a pink dress with a flower on it's front, you might think she was sweet, cute, pretty, charming, polite. (She was none of those things) Until you saw the permanent scowl etched into her face and heard her speak.  
She was currently standing on Grim's door step, arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently.  
"Oh, you're still here. You've been in your room for so long that I thought you'd flown the coop."  
"I take it dis isn't a social call." Grim said. It was not a question.  
"Of course not, Grim, you know me better than that. I need a...favor." Mandy said the last word as though it physically pained her to utter it.  
"Oh, really, what favor? I'm busy right now." the robed figure said crossly.  
"Doing what, watching El Amor De La Pasion El Amor?" Mandy snorted.  
"And how could you possible you possibly know anyting of da sort?" Grim replied.  
"Either I've gained psychic powers or, option number two, you left your TV on."  
If Grim would've had skin, muscle, and blood on top of his skull, he would've blushed crimson.  
"Fine, c'min, but don't you dare tell anyone I've been watchin' it. That Salazar kid put me up to it."

"What is it tat was so urgent you couldn't wait until me show was over?" the Reaper demanded as soon as the door swung shut.  
Mandy, never one for small talk or tact said " Brain Boy and Mandork seem to have located my Fusion copy."  
"You're kidding! Da one dat destroyed half of Endsville?" Grim exclaimed.  
"I don't kid, actually. It's the one and the same," the blond said wearily. "This time, I have personal matters to attend to. No one goes around wrecking _my_ city, wearing _my_ face, and gets away with it. Ever. That's my job."  
"I see," the skeleton said, stroking his large, bony chin. He hadn't realized until then that Mandy really did care about her city after all. "And what exactly do you want me to do about it?"  
"I want your scythe. I need to insure that Fuse's copy stays down."  
"No, and dat's me final answer."  
"Oh, and why's that?" Mandy sneered, mock inquiry in her voice.  
"Let me tink about it, let's see here. How about, every time you rotten children get anywhere near me scythe you cause chaos and mass hysteria, you nearly got me fired from me cushy job as Grim Reaper, you forced me to be your best friend forever, and I just plain don't like you." Grim said, crossing his skinny arms beneath his robes, head held high.  
"Gee, Grim, I guess it's time you finally grew a spine. I shouldn't try to budge you in your convictions in any way, because that's what friends do. Or, how about, if you don't hand over your scythe right now, I'll tell every KND operative, dork, dweeb, nerd, alien, idiot extra-dimensional being, and their grandmas that you've been copped up in your room all day, on your day off, watching that Spanish soap opera."  
The Grim Reaper opened his mouth for a second, as if to reply, then closed it. He sighed a moment, closed his eye sockets, then said. "Fine, you got yourself a deal."


	2. Chapter 2

Mandy strolled along at an even pace through DexLabs HQ, the Reaper's scythe casually propped against one shoulder, to the surprise of all who crossed her path. Even the most adventurous recruit knew well enough to stay out of her way, but there were always a few idiots.  
"Holy cow, she must've done away with Grim!" Mandy thought she heard that twerp Double D say.  
She almost smiled at that. Almost, but not quite. Good let them think she'd be ruthless enough to...dispatch an old friend to get what was needed. It was better to be feared than loved by your subordinates. They listened better that way.  
Perhaps the rumors would persist until old bone breath stopped watching soap operas long enough to leave his room. That would scare a few of the little dorks silly, especially if Grim ventured out without his robes on.  
With that cheery thought in mind, Mandy made to push open the large metal doors, the only things separating her from the Infected world outside, but a gloved hand grabbed her left arm roughly. The blond turned, a harsh scowl carved into her small face. She gripped the scythe with her free hand.  
"Oh, it's _you_ ," Mandy scoffed at the muscle bound man. "What do you want? I have plans, the sort of kind that will help with the war effort. But you wouldn't know a good plan if it gnawed off your other arm."  
"I want in." Hoss Delgado said, straight to the point.  
With his mane of flaming red hair, the patch over his left eye, the myriad of scars covering his face and exposed flesh, not to mention the buzz saw sticking out of the stump of his right arm, he cast an imposing figure, but Mandy wasn't intimidated. Not that anyone ever intimidated her. On top of that, she considered Delgado to be a loser and a coward, though Billy and Irwin idolized him.  
"Three words: beat it, moron." Mandy said as she pushed open the door again.  
Hoss held onto her arm tighter this time, almost enough to bruise. In a patronizing tone, he said, "I cannot, under good conscience, allow a little girl such as yourself to wander about in the wilderness of the Infected Zone, alone, without some sort of guide or guardian."  
"I am no one's "little girl", Delgado, I wasn't even before Fuse reared his ugly head. I survived Billy's idiocy for years. I tricked the Grim Reaper into being my friend after he lost a limbo contest. I defeated the goddess of discord, that idiot Nergal, the Boogey Man, Lord Moldy Wart, the Under Toad, and countless others. What makes you think Fuse's ridiculous minions can take me?" Mandy said coldly, wrenching her arm free of Delgado's grasp.  
"Because I happen to know it's not just any Fusion you're after. Chasing after your evil-well, slightly more evil- twin is an ambitious project."  
Mandy cursed internally. She wondered which imbecile had let it slip. Maybe Billy or Brain Boy's idiotic sister, Deedee, had overheard her conversation with Dexter and Mandark, and then ran off, blabbing it around the building as they went. If someone as thick as Hoss Delgado knew she was after the other Mandy, the rest of the base wouldn't be far behind.  
"In case you hadn't noticed, _Hoss_ ," she spat, "I'm borrowing Grim's scythe for the evening. If I so much as nick her with the blade, she'll be down for the count. Permanently. Forever. Adios. Good-bye."  
And with that, she marched out of DexLabs' front door, head in the air, scythe at her side, leaving Delgado and the safety of HQ behind.

The thing with a theory is that before it is tested or acted upon, it's just that, a theory, an idea lodged in someone's brain.  
But an idea's a powerful thing. It could mean the difference between life and death, failure and success, adventure and boredom...or it can cause you to make stupid, reckless choices in the name of your cause, like the choices Mandy made that day.  
When Dexter and Mandark had finally contacted Mandy on her com link, telling her that her Fusion copy had been located at last (after wrecking Endsville, of course), something clicked in her brain.  
"...Good luck with that. If the mess it made of Endsville is any indication of its power, it will be very hard indeed to put your copy down." Dexter's had said from one half of the link's screen. Brain Boy had received word of the Fusion Mandy whilst tinkering in his laboratory and had contacted Mandy and Mandark ASAP, just as requested.  
"I'm aware of that, McPherson, that's why I...requested you alert me to _her_ location before anyone else." Mandy had said impatiently from the seat of her desk.  
"Pfft, even if you go after it, there's no guarantee it will stay dead. It's physiology is completely different from any living creature on the planet. Even the Null Void guns only dispatch the Fusion clones long enough to obtain a sample of the goop of which it's made up." Mandark had snorted from the other half of the screen. While Dexter's lab was located in the building, Mandark's base of operations were located at Mandark Industries across the street, and the two pre-teen geniuses refused to share resources.  
"I was not aware "goop" was a technical term, _Susan._ " Dexter had chuckled.  
The other boy had scowled from behind the rims of his round glasses.  
 _No guarantee it will stay dead- wait, why hadn't she thought of that earlier...  
_ Mandark had started to speak, but Mandy had held up a hand to silence him.  
"Enough bickering. Are you two professionals or children?"  
"Technically speaking, we are both." DexLabs' creator had murmured. She had given him a glare hard enough to crack his tinted glasses.  
"Do you really think I'd go after her without a plan? All I need to complete it is Grim's scythe. If that doesn't give the other Mandy the urge to take an everlasting dirt nap, I don't know what will." Mandy had told the geniuses, arms folded.  
"There is quite a flaw in your plan, Mandy," Dexter had stated, "As my... associate said, the Fusion are physiologically different than any living creature. So much so that they do not technically fit into the category of living beings. They are without pain, emotion. They are as animated slim given life force and vengeance. Not unlike the golems of legend. Who is to say even the Grim Reaper's scythe would kill such a creature? It would be like stabbing an automaton in the heart and excepting it to keel over, let alone bleed."  
"I'm well aware of the risks, Brain Boy, which is why I have a few fail safes, just incase..."  
Mandy was nothing if not organized, though others would describe her as cold, calculating, maybe even sociopathic. Even if it meant everything balanced on one, stupid theory, she would have to pull it off.

Leaves, grass, and dry, sand-like dirt crunched under sold black boots, the kind of well worn boots used to kicking down doors, tromping through muck. The boots' owner was persistent, on the prowl, but to a fault. Fool hardy. A very fool hardy man.  
A green, blobulous mass, about the size of a small cat, looked up at the man, a hiss on its lips, or therefore lack of. The man ignored it, until the blob's friends appeared, hopping up and down like mad around his ankles. They were a minor annoyance, but he didn't want it said he couldn't handle a few Fusion Spawns. A few deft swipes of his buzz saw later, a large puddle of vomit green ooze laid at his feet.  
He trod through it, ooze splashing upon his combat boots, and after his quarry. If Mandy's scare tactic, er, leadership skills were lost to combat, the war against Fuse was already lost.


	3. Chapter 3

The others, Tennyson, the Powerpuff Girls, the Kids Next Door, Providence's goons, always made a big deal about venturing out into the Infected Zone alone. Though Mandy had no experience with the Infected areas, having rarely left DexLabs HQ since spearheading the Earth's Combined Forces initiative at the start of the war, she found them simple enough to navigate.  
Avoid the slimy traces of Fusion Matter, it stung like acid if it touched your flesh and it smelled a combination of sulfur and vomit. Keep away from major spawning points, or risk being ambushed by Frightening Bugs, Rending Machines, or the like. Easy, especially when your weapon of choice causes everything it touches to wither and die.  
Luckily Mandork and Brain Boy's theory was proving incorrect. With each swing of the scythe's curved blade, one of Fuse's minions burst into green ooze, sinking into the ground like it was never there. None of them reformed or got back up. Mandy was right, as usual. Maybe she was a genius after all.  
Unless, of course, small, nagging voice said, maybe you're not sticking around long enough to find out. Or maybe Grim's scythe was effective on Fusion Spawn, Frightening Bugs, et cetera, but not on Fusion copies of Earth's heroes. They were stronger, faster, and more resilient than the other lifeforms Planet Fuse had unleashed upon them. Not unlike the original people they were based upon...  
But she didn't have time to think about that. The other Mandy, the one with near translucent green skin and blazing, pupil-less eyes, had been spotted in the Really Twisted Forest over 27 hours ago. She wouldn't stay thee much longer. If Mandy's Fusion slime copy was even half as intelligent and ruthless as the original, she would have been prepared, and maybe she even knew Mandy was gunning for her.  
The copies Fuse created were "born" with the all the skills, knowledge, and memories as those whose DNA they came from. Therefore Mandy reasoned that the (no, she needed a name for her, not just "the other Mandy") pile of sludge masquerading as her would know she didn't take kindly to imposters or anyone who destroyed what was hers.

The man couldn't let Mandy het out of his sight. He needed her to be just far away that she couldn't see him, but he could see her. Given his limited vision, it wasn't the best way to observe and report back to DexLabs' founder (from his side of things), but he knew if he got much closer, Mandy would sniff him out like a prized bloodhound. The creepy little girl had almost supernatural senses and was notoriously hard to tail.  
He squinted after the preteen terror, realizing with a jolt where she was headed. Oh no. Dexter had warned him she was likely to go thee after the Fusion Mandy, but he hadn't known she was suicidal enough to enter the Really Twisted Forest by herself. The place had been treacherous enough before the war, but now it was rumored to be filled with a hodge-podge of some of the most dangerous Fusion Monsters out there.  
He shuddered, his true cowardly nature showing itself. The man wished he hadn't agreed to this assignment, but as Dexter had informed him, he was "the only one crazy and stooopid enough to keep tabs on the girl who enslaved the Death himself".

Mandy had realized she was being followed about twenty minutes into the journey. Whoever it was wasn't subtle and seemed to snap every twig he, she was certain it was male, came in to contact with and attracted Fusions right and left. An idiot in heavy boots. (And a liability if she wanted to reach her destination without much incident) She knew quite a few of those. Perhaps it was even an idiot from HQ that Dexter or some other dweeb had sent after her in an effort to keep her safe. Brain Boy needn't worry.  
Mandy knew all the same moves as her green counterpart and would be ready for whatever Fandy, as she decided to call until she thought of a better name, threw her way.  
The girl in the pink dress stood in front of the entrance to the mutated Forest, quietly weighing her options as she looked at her reflection in the scythe's mirror shiny blade. She didn't look like much to her own eyes. Blond hair in an odd cut, black head band, bangs fanning in front of piercing gray eyes, an almost non-existent nose, a perma-frown etched onto her pale face. Before the war with Fuse, she could've been anyone in a random sea of faces, lost to the crowd completely. Anonymous. Yet now she had one of the most recognizable faces in the world as the leader of Earth's Combined Forces.  
Mandy had always known one day people would know her face and run in terror, as she planned to rule the entire planet as its dictator one day, but she had never they would be the bad guys.  
She took one last look at her surroundings, Grim's scythe held expertly in hand, then stepped into her copy's lair.


End file.
